What is the difference between a good song and a great song? I'd argue that it comes down to message. I love reading way too much into everything (if you didn't already notice), but that doesn't mean I like doing more work than necessary. If you can't tell what a song is really about after the first minute then it's not doing a very good job. This is how you end up with songs like State of Grace from Taylor Swift's 2012 album Red. I enjoy this song a lot but it just doesn't measure up to Taylor's best work because it lacks a distinct tone.
Maybe I'm just being lazy. Red has a lot to offer as an album, but you really have to put work into listening and interpreting the songs. They sound good and have solid stories, but the music itself doesn't do anything to further the message behind the song. In this way I actually think it shares a lot in common with Reputation. Both of these albums have a common thematic thread running all the way through them, though these threads are by no means the same. The difference is that Reputation's production did a better job of taking it's theme into all aspects of the songwriting process, which is why I think that most of the songs are higher quality on average.
No small part of this difference comes from the themes these albums chose to explore. Reputation's is roughly an album about the difficulties of starting and maintaining relationships while under extreme public and personal scrutiny, which really lends itself towards a darker tone. Red, on the other hand, explores all the paradoxical aspects of relationships with red flags but still are irresistible. These are both extremely compelling themes for an album, but Red is more of a challenge to write a tone that will work across an entire album, which is why I think it falls short more often.
Let me make it clear that not every song on Red suffers from this challenging tone; not every song even takes it into account. 22 and I Knew You Were Trouble are great examples of songs I would point to as great songs from this album. 22 mostly ignores the thematic elements from the rest of the album and does it's own thing, and totally rocks at it! Meanwhile, I Knew You Were Trouble might as well be the thesis for the entire album and manages to work the theme of the album into the tone of the song in a way that doesn't get in the way of how catchy the song sounds.
Anyways, I want to talk a little more about State of Grace, since that is the song I'm pointing to as an example of how this songwriting process can fall a little short. I should probably try to back up my claims with evidence, right? This is a little difficult though, since like I said the song is written well and the music is composed well so on their own nothing will appear to be wrong because nothing is wrong! This makes my usual strategy of highlighting certain lyrics a lot less useful, so I have something to try instead.
I'm just going to assume that you haven't listened to this song a million times like I have, so here's what I propose. Listen to State of Grace a few times, then wait a few days, listening to whatever else you normally do Then, go look up the lyrics online and see how well the music comes back into your head. If you're trying to get really scientific then mix in a few other songs and see how each of them compares. If my hypothesis is correct then you probably won't be able to remember the actual song as well as some of the others. Maybe I'm totally wrong and being a total Grinch here, so let me know in the comments how it goes. Or don't. See if I care.
See you tomorrow,
-C
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